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Saturday, July 26, 2014

There
are conflicting accounts of ninth-to-eleventh-century Norse people. One story
characterizes them as intelligent craftsmen and traders with progressive ideas
on gender equality. In the alternate version, they're a berserk whirlwind
of theft, rape, and murder.

So
which is it?

Eventually,
every narrative becomes false as time and interpretation filter it into an
oversimplified distillate. Only firsthand experience can reveal what
history obscures.